PARIS – Barring any last-minute setbacks, Kevin Durant will make his 2024 debut with Group USA versus Serbia of their first recreation of the Paris Olympics after he missed your complete exhibition marketing campaign with a calf pressure, coach Steve Kerr stated.
The People, favorites to win a fifth consecutive gold medal, play NBA celebrity Nikola Jokić and the Serbians at 11:15 am (ET) Sunday.
Durant, 35, a three-time Olympic gold medalist and the all-time main scorer for the U.S. males, had handed each take a look at earlier than Saturday’s apply after struggling a strained left calf days earlier than the People’ Olympic coaching camp started July 6.
“Thus far, so good,” Kerr stated of Durant. When requested if he anticipated Durant to play Sunday, Kerr stated “hopefully” — referring to the perennial All-Star making it by way of Saturday’s apply with no hassle.
Kerr stated he had not determined if Durant would begin or come off the bench, however within the parts of apply accessible to the media, Durant was working with USA’s second unit.
Durant, who’s making an attempt to turn into the one males’s basketball participant to win 4 gold medals, couldn’t do something apart from shoot on the facet till the workforce arrived in London late final week. He ramped up his practices after the U.S. made it to France with a workforce apply Wednesday in Lille and a scrimmage Thursday in a Parisian suburb.
The People selected to maintain Durant on the roster, which was finalized this week, moderately than ship him dwelling like they did Kawhi Leonard (knee harm) as a result of they felt he can be wholesome sufficient to play — if not within the opening video games however then later for event knockout phases on Aug. 5.
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Durant is probably the most prolific scorer in U.S. males’s historical past. He has 640 factors total (Olympics and FIBA World Cup play), probably the most factors scored in a single Olympics and a single FIBA competitors, the second-most factors in a single Olympics and probably the most factors in a FIBA recreation. No participant, male or feminine, has averaged extra factors per recreation within the Olympics than Durant with 19.8, nor has any American averaged extra in an Olympic event than Durant’s 20.7 factors within the Tokyo Video games.
“Immediate impression,” LeBron James stated when requested about Durant’s imminent return. “He regarded extraordinarily (good) the opposite day in apply. Clearly his wind and his rhythm are going to proceed to return, but when we’re in a position to get him again, it makes a big impact to our membership.”
In the meantime, USA middle Joel Embiid didn’t attend apply Saturday on account of an sickness, however he additionally is predicted to play in opposition to Serbia. Additionally, the arson assault on French railways Friday morning precipitated Group USA to take a bus to Lille after Saturday’s apply, the place they’ll keep in a single day earlier than taking part in Serbia on Sunday.
(Photograph: Garrett W. Ellwood / NBAE through Getty Pictures)
